Last afternoon I was chatting with V, and somehow it came up that McDonalds in India (as in most countries) has customized its menu for the Indian palate. What he didn’t know though was that India is the only country in which McDonalds home delivers. I was astounded myself when I first found out, but I now know at least two people (S&T, yes, this is you) who are quite happy to use this service! Anyway, I got off the phone and headed out to return a library book and then catch up with a friend and see a film. Voila, a few houses away was the McDonalds delivery dude, waiting patiently for his payment to arrive from inside. I asked him if I could take a photo and he assented 🙂 Charming, no?

I see these billboards advertising footware and sunglasses every morning. What i didn’t see until recently was that they’re housed in the National Tribal Museum (The Bharatiya Adimjati Sevak Sangh). Yup John Abraham is shilling shoes right under a statue Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar and others.Â The walls and the doorways of this building are beautifully wrought in tribal work as is the main gate. It boggles the mind to fathom what the Museum folks were doing when they decided to also make it a factory outlet!

These are my drugs. Three tiny alcohol-and-something-else-soaked sugar pills for my allergies to dust, pollen, and, well, Delhi 😉 It could be a placebo effect but the hay fever and sore throat symptoms have decreased dramatically. Yay for placebos and alternative medicines. Yay to not being hooked on allegra.

The building I work in (Videocon Tower)Â is the biggest eyesore in Jhandewalan. (I shan’t say anything about the giant Hanuman mandir here.) It’s visible from nearly everywhere; we just steer towards it when we’re driving to work. It’s also visible from a station away on the Metro. I took this photo on Saturday evening from the Metro stop. As I blithely stepped away editing it on my phone, I heard someone calling “Medem! Medem!” Yep, I was being pursued by a security guard who forbade me from taking photos in or of the station and demanded to see all my photos. So I happily started walking him through the photos of roadside temples, doggies fighting, and he let me keep my VT photo. 😉

Thursday a.m., amidst the papers, leaves, dust, and plastic bags in the garbage-collector’s tricycle was this bright yellow box for an “Electric Guitar”. As I got closer, I nearly choked.
The tag line in red reads: Experience the sweetness feel to flying the music sea. (click on the photo to zoom in)

Yesterday, a chapter closed on the long-drawn saga of my elliptical machine. Three weeks ago, when I started looking for gyms I found they had all been sealed — i.e. the police had shut them down for operating out of residences. (Idiots!) So I did some research and found that the cost of 5 months of membership to one of these home-grown gyms pretty much equaled the cost of a mid-level elliptical machine (the only machine I do at the gym b/c of my feet.) After some serious comparison shopping, I found a good deal and paid an advance to have it sent to my house. That was more than two weeks ago. The piece “got stuck in customs,” had “trouble unloading,” “got stopped at the border,” and finally made it to Delhi, I’m told, but for some reason the dude had stopped answering my calls. Finally, I got him to commit (and that word is always used very loosely around these parts) to a time. Three more commitments later and many hours spent waiting and rearranging plans around the estimated drop-off time, I finally called off the deal and went to get my advance back. (I don’t know why I really expected the chap to show up at the time he said he would, honestly. I’m so naive sometimes.) And instead of the black model I’d chosen, I had to opt for this devilish red, flamed one instead from another vendor because it was in stock. And surprise, surprise! It actually showed up at home as promised, when promised!

In Jhandewalan where I work, there is a giant Hanuman temple. Hanumanji stands about 6 stories tall and he carries Ram and Sita in his heart. Literally. He also seems to be standing on a demon he has killed and the entrance to the shrine is through the open jaw of the slain villain. (Truly.)

Someday soon I will make a video of Hanumanji, who is a bright, glaring shade of pink, in order to show you how, when you press a button — voila! his arms part from their namaskar and the golden pair of Ram and Sita come out of his heart! (Think “Celestial Cuckoo Clock” to get the right image in your mind’s eye.)

Anyway, the back side of Hanuman (with scaffolding) is visible from the Jhandewalan Metro statio. I took this photo at dusk from the inbound platform as my train pulled in. (March 15, 2007)

Near Kirti’s house in Mumbai is a temple (I didn’t check to which god to Hanuman) that is called Shri Ghanteshwar (or the Lord of Bells’-God). It is festooned with more bells than you can imagine. When you go pray for something, you tie a ghanti, or bell, and it will come true, I presume. I didn’t have my real camera on me, only my cell phone. Forgive the grainy quality. I’ll update it another time with a better shot. But know that each bump and swirl on the pillars and such is a bell (not ivy 😉 ). (March 9, 2007)